Free Plagued: Book 1 by Eden Crowne Page B

Recovering her manners, she went over and knelt to help. “I wasn't paying attention...I...” she trailed off lamely.
    “Quite all right. Please, I'm fine.”
    He put down his hand and Sky let him help her stand.
    He was wearing a fine double-breasted coat and houndstooth muffler over black trousers. His thick black hair was cut in a goth-slash-dandy combination that made him look like a bad boy from a Japanese animation. She saw now he had a thin white scar that cut right across his forehead through his eyebrow and onto one cheek.
    “Really, I'm sorry.”
    “Its fine, honestly. In fact, this meeting is quite lucky.” He gave her an easy smile and her stomach fluttered up and down. “I was walking from the University to the hospital and seemed to have gotten turned around. I was told it is quite near.”
    “Oh, yes, absolutely.” She turned and pointed behind her. “Go back that way. See the brown and white building?”
    He looked where she pointed and nodded. “I see it.”
    “Reception is just through there.”
    He held out his hand for her to shake. “Thanks very much indeed.”
    She might have said something intelligible like, “your welcome,” or she might have just babbled.
    He walked past her in the direction of the hospital. Raising one arm, he gave her a jaunty wave without turning around, as though he knew Sky was watching him walk away.
    She felt her cheeks burn. The chance encounter with a handsome young man gave her something to think about beside yesterday's frightening events. Her brush with death in the blood vault kept washing in and out of her mind's eye like waves on a storm-tossed beach. She was fine...she was panicking...she was fine...she was terrified. Walking the rest of the way to the shopping center, she tried to keep the image of the smooth and sophisticated stranger in her mind's eye.
    Her first order of business was buying baby pajamas for the party tomorrow. Eloise suggested Toddler Time, a new store in the mall. Birth rates – and more importantly survival rates – were climbing for Positives. Merchants were feeling encouraged enough to start specialty stores for parents again. The store was bustling, mostly with Rednecks, but not only. Sky found two pairs of pajamas, one with yellow ducks and the other, yellow teddy bears. The salesman even gift wrapped the parcel and included a little to-from card. She and her aunt were going half and half on the price. As a Tactical trainee, Sky received a small allowance from the government since she couldn't take a part time job. She'd had her own money since she was twelve.
    The outdoor mall was full of old trees and big, fat, decorative planters for flowers all along the center of the rambling promenade. The past three years, the older members of the Neighborhood Watch together with the schools had worked to restore the flower beds the mall was famous for before the plagues. Last spring, Sky's class took their turn helping the decoration committee. This year the fountains were even turned on again over weekends. Sky visited the planters she'd worked on. They were still lush and blooming even in October.
    Since the government lifted most sanctions against gathering during the flu season last year, stores in the Bay Area were planning to stay open in the evening for the first time in twenty years this winter. There were plans to actually decorate the mall for Christmas and the other winter holidays. Lights and trees and everything. Sky had already signed on for that project which was scheduled to start next weekend. The merchants, of course, were enthusiastic supporters. Every shop had automatic sanitizers installed at the entrance anyway. As long as people wore their masks for winter, coming to an outdoor mall wasn't seen as a real flu danger.
    Sky headed for the Coffee Brewing Company where a blueberry muffin and soy cafe mocha were calling her name. Since the mall had reopened, CBC had become the unofficial town square. Stay there more